True Love's Other Kiss
by Microsuede Mouse
Summary: There's only one thing that could improve the almost-perfect lives of Commander Cassandra Cillian and Professor Jacob Stone: each other. It feels amazing to finally be headed in that direction. There's only one problem - every time they kiss they suddenly seem to remember a different life they had. But they can't think clearly or hang onto the memories. Unless they keep kissing.


Hhhhhahaha this is my favourite one I've written so far. The idea occurred to me immediately when I watched 2x09 and I'm surprised I haven't seen it before? I've only read fic here on AO3 so far and could totally have missed it but. I've seen stories about Cicely!Jake and Cicely!Cassandra smoochin' but I haven't seen anyone exploring the possibility of it having the same effect it did on Eve and Flynn. Anyway, I couldn't stop grinning while working on this, so.

Notes:  
1\. I set this at finals season super arbitrarily. I have no idea when it was supposed to be and I can't guess based on the weather because as far as my Ontario eyes can tell, the West coast doesn't have seasons  
2\. Jenkins said they were under the spell for three weeks so I used that as my approximate timeline, with the idea that all the flirting/lead-up they mention is part of their false memories of life in Cicely.  
3\. My experience with bars is very limited, but my experience with professional cleaning is extensive. I think that might show in the first scene, haha.

Okay! Enjoy, my friends. 3  
[cross-posted to AO3]

* * *

Cassandra glanced into the corner and smiled as she wiped down the bar. At some point in the evening Jake had taken his beer and wandered over to the bookshelf, skimming titles and eventually pulling one out curiously. She had watched him settle comfortably into the armchair there and start flipping through the pages, soon getting sidetracked by their contents and eventually sucked right in. He'd been sitting there for over an hour now, completely engrossed in the book – which he hadn't removed from his lap even once, so she still wasn't sure which one it was. She had gone over once to quietly replace his empty bottle with a small glass of water, but other than that she'd kept herself busy with customers, the last of whom had left just a few minutes ago.

Tossing her cloth into a bucket under the counter, she crossed the room and tapped his shoulder gently. "Hey, bookworm," she said softly, smiling at him. "Time for me to close up shop."

"Is it that late already?" he asked, glancing up at the clock on the wall. "Damn, I had no idea."

Cassandra laughed as she went toward the front to switch off the neon _open_ sign in the window. "It's pretty late, yeah. You should go home and get some sleep."

He got up and stretched, slotting the book back into its place on the shelf. "You want a ride?" he asked. "Since I'm here anyway." He picked up the empty glass from the table next to his chair and took it over to the bar, putting it in the sink behind the bar with the others.

"As much as I enjoy your little sidecar," she teased, "It's a Thursday, and I have to clean up for the weekend. No time during the day tomorrow, I have a TV show to record."

"You want a hand?" Jake offered. She glanced up at him in the midst of her usual round past all the tables to pick up empty glasses, and she had trouble resisting that sweet, playful smile of his.

"Don't you have to get up in the morning?" she tried, a look of mock suspicion on her face as she brought a handful of tumblers back to the sink. She started to rinse them out and he leaned back against the edge of the counter next to her, resting on his elbows.

"Nah, no classes tomorrow, remember? Finals start on Monday." He gave her a grin when she glanced at him over her shoulder. "C'mon, I can help clean. I co-own the place, it seems like the least I can do."

Cassandra looked back down at the cups she was washing, chuckling. "Okay, fine. You know where the broom is?"

"Think so," he answered, pushing off the counter. In the narrow space behind the bar, she felt his hips slide against her backside as he slipped past and headed for the tall closet at the other end. He rummaged around for a moment and then she heard a little "Aha." He took the broom and dustpan and headed out from behind the bar into the room, and this time she pulled a little closer to the sink, giving him a little more room to go by. It seemed like he didn't notice, though, because he brushed up against her much the same way the second time.

"Start at the back and work your way toward the front door," she advised him. "That way you can just sweep it straight outside when you're done."

"Shortcuts. Girl after my own heart," he joked, heading towards the bathrooms at the back. She smiled to herself. "Am I sweepin' the washrooms too?"

"No, I'll mop them," she called. She finished up with the dishes and grabbed another cloth from the shelf under the counter, heading out to wipe down the tables. As Jake swept his way up close to her, he began to chase her with the broom, deliberately sweeping around her feet and getting in her way. There was an enormous grin on his face as he did so.

"Quit that," she laughed, hopping out of his path as she tried to finish with a table.

"Don't know what you're talkin' about," he answered innocently, twirling around the table and sweeping over her feet again. Still laughing, she spun around and, without thinking about it, whipped her cleaning rag at him, just managing to swat him in the ass as he went past. "Oh!" He put a hand to his chest and raised his eyebrows at her, pretending to be scandalized. "It's like that, huh?" She snorted and went back to her work, but then she heard the broom clatter to the ground and she barely managed to turn before he scooped her up and lifted her off the floor.

She yelped and smacked lightly at his arms, but he kept them tight around her waist, grinning up at her. Laughing again, she peered down at him, now several inches below her. "Well, what now?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Hadn't planned that far ahead."

Cassandra snorted again, resting her hands on his shoulders. "Okay, genius. For your terrible planning skills, you get the pleasure of helping me with the bathrooms next." A good distraction from how close together they were, or how strong he was, she thought. Dirty toilets were a pretty universal mood-killer.

"Aw." He pouted comically, and she rolled her eyes. "And we were havin' so much fun."

"I don't mind doing the toilets if you'll do the sinks and mirrors," she told him.

"Well, all right." Jake loosened his grip and let her down. "I guess I can hardly complain about an arrangement like that."

"You can't indeed!" she agreed, jabbing him playfully in the chest. "C'mon. It was a quiet night, they shouldn't be bad."

She was right. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and gave each toilet (and in the men's room, urinal) a quick scrub while he wiped down the sinks and mirrors for her, and then he stood in the doorways to keep her company while she quickly mopped the floors.

"Y'know, I can't help wonderin'," he said conversationally as he followed her back to the bar sink, where she peeled off the gloves and washed her hands. "Busy girl like you, hardly hurtin' for money. Why don't you hire cleaners for this place? No real need to do it yourself."

Cassandra shrugged. "I guess I just never felt the need. The work is quick, and kind of appealingly automatic. Mindless. Feels straightforward, and familiar."

"An' you don't mind doin' it? At all?" he asked.

She smiled at him, turning and leaning back against the counter. "Well, I certainly didn't mind tonight."

He grinned back. For a moment they just stood there, watching each other, and eventually he glanced down. "Guess I better clear outta here 'n let you lock up, huh?"

She pursed her lips for a moment, thinking. Then she offered, "We could share one more drink. Long as we don't make a mess." She grinned.

He considered briefly. "Yeah, I think I'd be okay for one more."

She turned around and opened the fridge, reaching for a couple bottles of his favourite. Popping the lids off with the bottle opener mounted on the wall, she turned back and handed him one. Jake hoisted himself up onto the bar, and she followed suit. They clinked the necks of their beers together and each took a long sip.

Jake took a long breath and sighed contentedly. "This is a good thing we have goin' here."

"Thing?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"The bar," he clarified, turning to gesture at the room behind them. "This is the dream."

Cassandra smiled. "And here I thought teaching and writing and saving world heritage sites was your dream," she teased, bumping his shoulder with hers.

He grinned down at her. "No one said there wasn't room for books, beer, an' good friends in there."

"I guess not," she agreed. She took another long sip of her drink. "How long have we known each other now, Jake?"

He rubbed one hand across the stubble on his chin, thinking. "Damn. Been a few years, anyway. Met you though Baird, didn't I? Just before Jones an' his people set up shop in town. Well, how long's the bar been runnin'? We bought it a few months after we all started workin' together."

"That's true," she agreed. "Bar's been open for close to two years now."

"Feels longer'n that," he admitted. "Could swear I'd known you damn near my whole life."

She smiled. "Worked to my advantage you didn't, though. With friends like you it would've been harder to leave for the moon," she joked.

"Aw." Jake put a hand to his heart. "You flatterer." They were quiet for a moment or two, leaning into each other just slightly. "Why d'ya ask?"

She shook her head. "Just couldn't quite remember all of a sudden. Life is so good right now. It's almost surreal. I can hardly imagine how it could be better."

"Hardly, hm?" This time it was him playfully bumping her. "Sounds like there's _somethin_ ' you can think of that would make it better."

Cassandra smiled into her drink. "Maybe. Hard to say for sure."

He watched her quietly, and eventually she looked back up at him. Placing his almost-empty beer on the counter next to him, he said softly, "Hey, Cassie?"

She raised her eyebrows in response. "Mm?" For a moment her big blue eyes completely filled his vision. He was pretty sure he hadn't been misreading the signals. They'd been flirting a lot in the last few months. So he leaned in and kissed her.

She was a little surprised, but pleasantly so, and responsive. He lingered for a moment, her hand drifting to his knee, and with their eyes closed, neither of them noticed a gentle pulse of blue. But then they pulled apart, Jake frowning. He glanced around the bar in confusion.

"Cassie? Where are we?" He turned back to her and registered their proximity, and then seemed to figure out what had just happened. Her face reddened as she did the same.

"Jacob? What's happening!?" she squeaked, pulling away from him.

"I'm not sure," he said, frown deepening. He couldn't quite meet her eye. "This is a bar. But I don't think…"

" _Jake_ ," Cassandra said, her tone deeply concerned. Finally he looked at her again. "I just- were we-" She swallowed and tried again, more slowly. "We were kissing just now, weren't we?"

"I think so, yeah," he admitted, unable to stop himself from glancing down to her lips. He'd enjoy this a lot more if he knew what was happening.

" _Why?_ " she managed. "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew!" he growled. "I can't think straight, my head's all muddled! Where the hell are Jones and Baird?" He looked around the empty bar again.

She frowned deeply, trying to remember anything, but she couldn't. It was just fog. "Well, they must be at home," she answered slowly. "It's pretty late. Anyway, I'm kind of glad it's just the two of us tonight." She leaned in again, smiling.

Confused, Jake looked at her again, then grinned a little at her expression. "Yeah, me too," he agreed, wagging his eyebrows at her. "Hey, so… Could I take you to dinner tomorrow, maybe?"

She bit back a big smile. "Well, I do have a bar to tend…"

"Early dinner, then," he bargained. "You don't open until five-thirty. We could fit somethin' in before that."

"Yeah," Cassandra answered, eyes sparkling. "I think we can work something out. I should be done filming by four."

"Great." He slid off the counter and turned to help her down. With his hands on her waist, her body trapped between him and the counter, he very much considered kissing her again, but he didn't want to get carried away. He helped her put away their now-empty beer bottles and turn out the lights, and they headed for the front door together. "You want that ride?"

x

Nearly three weeks later, Jake and Cassie had been on half a dozen highly successful dates. Ezekiel had been ribbing them nonstop, teasing them endlessly about having _finally_ gotten this over with, and now at least he could tell them to get a _room_ instead of having to just pretend to _ignore_ all their flirting and sexual tension. Oh, and Stone, you be careful, because Cassandra's a national asset, and it's totally within Ezekiel's jurisdiction to protect her if need be. Eve had teased a little too, claiming it had been a long time coming, but she was gentler, and she did genuinely congratulate them. She was happy for them! If only they could find someone for Ezekiel, everyone would be contentedly tied up.

The main problem was that at some point during every date, they would kiss. And when they kissed, they suddenly snapped from one reality to another, with no clear view of the distinctions between the two. In distress, they would flounder for a few minutes, trying to grasp something, _anything_ that made sense or matched up with their sense of who they were, where they should be. But every time, they slowly faded back into the bliss of Commander Cassandra Cillian and Professor Jacob Stone, happily honeymooning as they enjoyed the beginnings of a relationship that had been in the making for years.

It was on their fourth date – well, after their fourth date, at her front door – that she finally said, interrupting a confused and irate string of curses from him, "Jake, I still don't know what's going on, but – you see what's triggering this, right?"

He grumbled, still looking around as if he was going to find answers in the dark outside her house. "I _wish_ I knew what the hell is-"

"It's the kissing," she told him, flushing. "Every time we kiss, this happens. I just wish I could _think_ clearly. But my mind always seems to fade back so fast."

"Try to hold onto it," he urged her. "Why _do_ we keep kissin', anyway?"

"Well, I don't know about you," she said slowly, smiling now. "But I've kind of been enjoying it." She played with the lapels of his jacket. "I admit, it's something I've been wanting to do for a while."

"Me too, Cassie," he told her, grinning. He kissed her forehead. "G'night, darlin'. See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow," she confirmed. He turned to leave, but she grabbed his hand, suddenly reluctant. "Um, Jake…"

"Yeah?" he asked, smiling as he turned and came back. He stood very close as she bit her lip, considering.

"I was just, um… well, I've just. You know, like Eve and Ezekiel said, this was kind of coming for a long time, and I've been thinking…"

He grinned down at her, heart swelling as she struggled with her words. "I love you, Cassie," he told her gently, releasing her from her hesitation.

"Oh," she answered, and beamed. "Oh. Jake, I love you too." She put her arms around his neck and kissed him again, happily.

After a long, blissful moment and another unseen blue pulse, they broke apart. "Dammit, Cassie," he muttered. "What _is_ this?"

x

After their sixth date, standing in that same spot, Cassandra told him, "I need you to keep kissing me."

"What?" Jake looked back at her in surprise. "All o' this goin' on an' you want me to kiss you?"

"Yes," she answered, blushing. "Listen, we've covered this. It's the kissing that – that brings us back to ourselves, somehow. I don't know why. But if we're going to figure out what's going on, we need our heads to be clear for more than two minutes at a time. And for that, we have to keep kissing."

He stared at her for a moment, looking both grouchy and embarrassed. Finally, haltingly, he leaned in and kissed her again. It was quick and awkward, and after he pulled back, they stared for another second, and then she giggled.

" _What?_ " he demanded.

"Nothing," she snickered. "It's just kind of weird. The – the _other versions_ of us, the ones who're dating. They've um… progressed past the shy stage by now. Or don't you remember?"

"I remember," he muttered. She startled him by taking his hand and leading him into the house, shutting the door behind him. "What are we doin'?"

"You think I wanna stand in the open door all night while we figure this out?" she asked. She kicked her shoes off and shed her jacket, hanging it on a hook on the wall, and he followed suit. Feeling her head growing foggy again already, she kissed him again, short and gentle. "We may as well sit down," she continued, leading him into the living room.

They sat side-by-side on the bright blue velvet cushions of her sofa. Surveying the bright, cheerful decor, somewhere in the back of his mind, Jake thought, _so Cassie_. He was interrupted by her leaning over and kissing him again, lingering just a fraction longer this time. Frowning, he asked, "You have to do it so much?"

"Keeps my head straight," she answered, red-faced. She sat so close that it seemed awkward, but that was what made sense if they had to keep kissing so much. "The longer we keep this up the more I feel like I can remember. It's like – I think I have two separate sets of memories. They're all squished together though."

"Yeah, I think… I think I do too," he said, still frowning. Feeling it starting to slide, he reached out for her, not even thinking about it as he put a hand on her face to draw her in.

"We're Librarians," Cassandra murmured against his lips as they pulled apart yet again, slowly. She sat back again. "But I'm also… an astronaut?"

"I teach somethin' like ten different subjects at the university," he answered, looking confused.

"Nothing quite lines up," she said, rubbing her temples. Her eyes snapped open. "Jake, I… I have a tumour."

He met her startled gaze, wide-eyed himself. "Yeah, you do," he realized.

"I don't think I could go into space with a tumour."

"I don't know," Jake answered honestly. "I don't know a damn thing about space, y'know? That's part o' why I admire you so much, probably. You're so-"

"Jake," she interrupted. It was her turn to frown. He didn't seem to connect, so she put her hands on either side of his neck and pulled him forward, kissing him probably a little harder than she had to. She didn't pull away from him until she felt the fog clear all the way away from her brain, at which point his hands had made it to her waist. "Stay with me, buddy," she mumbled, embarrassed. She dropped her hands.

"I'm tryin'," he told her. "Why is this what does it?"

"I still have no idea," she answered. "Obviously there's magic at play, that goes without saying. I just – I just don't know what kind. If we were at the Library I could look it up, but we're…" she looked around the room. "I don't know where we are. I mean, I kind of do. This is my living room, in my house. I own a house. In…Cicely. Washington. Right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I think so. But why?"

"I don't know. Why do we have these alternate lives? How come we can't remember anything?" She groaned. "Why can't I _concentrate?_ God, this is so weird."

"In my experience, this much kissin' is usually detrimental to one's ability to focus. Not th'other way 'round," he observed. She raised an eyebrow at him. "What? I'm just sayin'."

"Well, it's not helpful," Cassandra told him simply. He could tell she was flustered.

"Sorry, darlin'," he told her, and his tone was growing more earnest again. She huffed slightly and leaned in, hands on his neck once again. He still hadn't let go of her waist, and this time he pulled her right on top of him, straddling his lap. He twisted so he could lean back into the couch cushions properly, holding her close. The longer he kissed her, the further the fog seemed to lift from his memory, so for a moment he just kept her there. Finally she pulled away again, apparently having to exercise some willpower to do so.

"I can't figure out how we got here in the first place," she said, not removing her hands from him this time. "I don't know if we had a case here, or… Jake? Are you listening to me?"

"Sorry," he said quickly, blinking hard. A lot of his memory had cleared – enough for him to feel embarrassed about all this – but at the same time it was very distracting having her in his lap there, looking so very kissed. "I'm listenin', yeah. I don't think we had a case. I don't remember _comin'_ here, or the Clippings Book, or anything. Just _bein'_ here."

"That's what I was thinking, exactly. As if I just woke up here… with a brand new life, a brand new history, that I just… accepted." She closed her eyes, willing herself to recall more.

Jake tried to focus on remembering, instead of his arms around her middle and her body on top of his. "Yeah. I don't know. It doesn't make sense. It's still us and Baird and Jones… Cassie, is Jones an FBI agent?"

"That doesn't seem right at all," she said with a shake of her head. Sure they must be confused, she leaned in to kiss him again, her fingers combing up into his hair. He hugged her tightly and she scooted in closer on his lap, eliciting a low groan from him. When her head felt clear again, she pulled back, though not as far as last time. "He's definitely an FBI agent here. That's nuts."

Jake hadn't opened his eyes. "Cassie, where'd we get dinner tonight?" he asked her.

She frowned. "Seafood place, I think."

"That's what I thought," he said with a nod. "I uh… I'm pretty sure I had oysters."

"Why's that relevant?" she asked.

He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "Well, uh, I think I mighta been plannin' on…"

" _Oh._ " She stiffened briefly, blushing yet again. "Actually, um, now that you mention it, I think I was too. I mean. You know. That other me."

"Uh – Cassie, listen," Jake said stiltedly. "Think about your life here for a minute."

She frowned again. "You change topics really quickly."

"No I don't," he told her, still looking up and trying to focus on anything other than her weight in his lap. "Just think about it."

"It's…" She shook her head instinctively, trying to clear the fog, and then leaned down and kissed him again. One of his hands drifted up from her waist to her scalp, fingers weaving into her hair. After a long moment she dragged herself away from him. "It's basically perfect. It's everything I ever wanted."

"Mine too," he answered, sounding a little strained. "Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

"No?" Cassandra answered at first. Then she thought about it. "…Yes. Really weird. Especially with the tumour. It's like… if I could wipe everything clean and design my new perfect life, it would be like this. Science, and _space_ , and educating, and ponies, and…"

"…And teachin' every subject I love, and savin' world heritage sites," he finished. "And Jones, a wildcard FBI agent who does whatever he wants and always catches the bad guy, like in the movies. Tell me that ain't his dream life."

"You're right," she told him. "You're absolutely right. But I don't know what it means."

"Me neither," Jake replied. "But I know the four of us are still a team, still havin' our unlikely adventures together."

"That's true." Suddenly she smiled. "Jake, none of us can imagine our lives away from each other anymore. We're part of each other's dream lives."

"Exactly," he said. "Anythin' else about that stand out to you?" He raised his eyebrows.

She stared at him questioningly for a moment, and when she didn't quite take his meaning, she leaned in and kissed him again, trying to clear her head. She let out a soft moan as he tightened his hold around her for a moment; her fingers ran through his hair, down his neck, onto his chest. "Oh," she said softly as they separated, finally catching on. She flushed as she met his eye again.

"Right before the first time we-" He hesitated. "Well, you sorta implied there was only way you could imagine your life bein' better-"

Cassandra cleared her throat weakly. "Yeah, that's true, I did."

"An', well – _dammit, Cassie_ –" With an apparently Herculean effort, he detached his left hand from her neck and moved her hands so that her fingers were no longer brushing his collarbone. "Listen, I told you I wasn't changin' the subject. After one of our… _dates_ … about a week ago I think…"

"Oh," she repeated, looking away. "Yeah, um…"

He groaned and leaned his head back, his gaze turning to the ceiling yet again. "Cassie, other-you 'n other-me are living out their ideal lives," he said.

" _We're_ part of _each other's_ dream lives," she repeated, very softly, with new emphasis.

He nodded just slightly. "Yeah, well, at any rate, I know that last week when other-me told other-you he loved ya, he, uh… he was speakin' for both of us."

She leaned down and kissed him again, hands on either side of his face drawing him forward, and he wished he knew why she was doing it, but then she ground against him slightly and he thought he might lose his damn mind before he figured out which one he was supposed to have in the first place.

"The other me meant it, too," she said breathlessly when she broke away. "A week ago, and again two days later at the bar, and the next night in the park, and yesterday on the phone, and tonight in the restaurant-"

Jake began to laugh, an edge of frustration in it. "Dammit, Cassie, this is not what we're supposed to be figurin' out right now," he breathed, but she was right there in his lap, all soft and willing and loving, and he dipped his head into the curve of her neck like he'd been thinking about for several minutes now and began to kiss her skin, loving the sounds she made.

"I know but – ah – I don't know if I'm going to figure anything more out, especially not without – _oh_ – without a clear head, and to keep my head clear I need to keep kissing you, _andifIkeepkissingyou_ –" She gasped and gripped his shoulders hard.

"I know," he groaned back. His hands had slid up under the hem of her untucked blouse, onto the warm skin of her back. Suddenly she was unbuttoning his shirt, pushing it away from his shoulders.

Cassandra grabbed his face and kissed him again, hard, fully opening her mouth for the first time, and he saw fireworks. "We're not going to figure this out tonight," she told him. "There's no way. We don't have the resources."

"I know," he said again, his hands sliding slowly up her sides underneath her blouse. "This is just really… I dunno, my head hurts tryin' to make sense of it. Which set of us is doin' this?"

"I think both," she admitted, leaning down to trail kisses along his collarbone. "But um, as long as there's a lot of kissing, it can be the real us, at least mostly."

"Yeah," Jake agreed, lowering one hand under her ass and pulling her sharply into him, drawing another gasp. "I just feel guilty – it ain't just us here, Cassie, there's Jones and Baird…"

"I don't want to think about Jones and Baird right now," she confessed with a cringe. She kissed him again, slowly and gently this time. "Look, um, thinking isn't confined to the living room, is it? We could keep thinking somewhere else. Like, um, upstairs, for example." She ground her hips against him again, a shock of excitement running through her as she felt his body respond.

" _God_ , Cassie," he managed. "Are you tryin' t'kill me?" But she kissed him again and he scooped his arms under her, letting her wrap her legs around his waist as he got to his feet. Stumblingly they made their way to the stairs and, miraculously, all the way up, abandoning his plaid button-down on the living room floor and her sweater-vest somewhere on the landing halfway up the stairs. Finally they made it into her bedroom, tugging impatiently at one another's clothes as they hit the bed.

"This ain't – _mmn_ – ain't very responsible of us," he pointed out as he unbuttoned her blouse, kissing his way down her chest.

"Well I'm – I'm still thinking!" Cassandra insisted, embarrassed. She was pawing at his t-shirt and he sat up to pull it off over his head. She bit her lip at the sight of his bare skin, and he grinned and leaned down to kiss her again, hard. She finished her thought when he pulled away and started to trail his kisses downward again. "You think I can't keep thinking while-?"

For the first time in a while, he frowned at her again. "Well, not if I'm doin' my job right, darlin'." She thought if she'd still been standing her knees would have buckled then and there.

Desperate to stave off the fog that pushed them back towards their strange idealized lives, to hang onto their real selves and real memories, they constantly interrupted themselves to kiss again, but it didn't seem detrimental to their night overall. It just made things a little frantic, a little needy, a little grabby. Neither of them minded it in the least. Even when they were quite thoroughly finished, panting next to each other in the sheets, Jake pulled Cassandra into his arms and kept kissing her. It was equal parts affection and a need to keep them both in their own heads. She didn't object, relishing the feeling of naked bodies and tangled legs. But they had worn themselves out, both physically and mentally, and eventually they had to sleep.

x

In the morning Jake woke with Cassandra still wrapped around him. The details of the previous night were regrettably fuzzy in his memory, but overwhelmingly positive. The urge to stay there in bed with her all day – or at very least until she woke up and they could spend some time cuddling and chatting sleepily – was immense. He knew how cute her just-woke-up voice was; the opportunity to actually kiss her sleepy face was incredibly tempting. Sadly, though, he couldn't get away with it. There were exams to mark. Maybe this weekend…

As carefully – and reluctantly – as he possibly could, he extricated himself from the wonderful tangle of limbs and sheets and picked his clothes up off the floor. In her washroom he splashed his face and washed his teeth with a bit of her toothpaste on his fingertip; in the kitchen he made himself a couple pieces of toast and wrote her a note. It was lovey and saccharine and quoted at least one poet, but she hadn't complained about any of that yet. She was just beginning to stir when he went upstairs to leave the note on her bedside table with a glass of orange juice.

He sat on the edge of the mattress and watched her for a moment, smiling. "G'mornin'," she managed, rolling to face him better. His resolve almost broke; he wanted nothing more than to crawl back into the bed with her.

"Mornin', gorgeous," he answered.

"You gotta go?" she asked, pouting slightly.

He laughed. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I'd rather stay. But I have five courses' markin' to catch up on and a thesis to proofread."

One of Cassandra's hands emerged from beneath the sheet and reached for his. "Duty calls," she admitted.

"Mm," he agreed quietly. "I'm free this weekend though…"

"That's an appealing offer," she said with a drowsy smile, snuggling into her pillow again.

"Sounds like a date then," he answered softly, grinning. He leaned down and kissed her cheek tenderly. "I gotta go, darlin'. I'll see you later."

"Okay," she murmured, squeezing his hand and then letting him go. "Love you."

"Love you too, Cassie," Jake told her before he left.

Jake got everything done that day that he could and then headed out of his office early, hoping to get to the bar and snag a couple of minutes alone with Cassie before anyone else showed. He offered his grad student, Sarah, a lift downtown when he noticed her leaving at the same time. His hopes to get Cassie alone for a while were dashed when he saw Baird crossing the road towards the bar with a stranger, but he put on a smile as he dismounted his bike.

"Mr. Carsen," Baird was introducing. "This is Professor Jacob Stone, from the University of Cicely…"

Jake offered a friendly grin. "Hi."

* * *

(I hate end notes bc they totally break the spell so I'll try to keep this quick, you are free to skip.) I had some fun (and kinda sexy, cough cough) ideas about them figuring more out/maybe even breaking the spell on their own, largely involving that weekend plan of theirs - meaning I would basically just shift the timeline a bit so that Flynn doesn't show up right when he does in this version, but a few days later. I'm concerned though that it would be hard to do that justice without reworking the broader plot of the episode to still include everyone making it out in the end? And I'm not sure if I quite have the chops for that. But if you're interested in the idea or anything, lemme know or drop me a line on tumblr or something (info's in my profile).

Okie dokie that's all, cheers folks. Thanks for reading!


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